There
have been disputes over livestock fences between landowners for as long as we
have been trying to keep livestock fences between landowners. The first fencing law in Missouri came in
1808, more than a decade before statehood. Since then, the Missouri legislature
has created three separate acts regarding a livestock owner’s responsibilities
to contain animals. These successive revisions to the law may not necessarily
provide incremental clarification for affected livestock owners.
Today,
some laws obligating neighboring landowners to pay for and maintain border
fences to contain livestock may be satisfied by simple mutual oral agreement
between the neighboring landowners while other situations may require
statutorily defined intervening “fence viewers” chosen by a circuit judge to
resolve disputes.
Further
complicating a livestock owner’s good faith attempt to understand and follow a
uniform set of fence laws in Missouri is the fact that there is not a uniform
set of fence laws in Missouri. In fact, there are two completely different sets
of statutes which dictate the rules regarding which neighbor must pay to build
or maintain border fences, consequences for those who fail to pay their share,
and regarding a livestock owner’s duty to keep their animals from trespassing
on a neighbor’s property.
The
statutes which will apply to a particular landowner differ, and depend solely
upon which county the land is located. The voters in each county in Missouri have
the right to select, in a special or general election, which set of fencing statutes,
will apply in their county. If an election yields a successful vote in favor of
adoption, the county is referred to as having selected the “local option” set
of statutory fence laws. However, if the county has never placed the issue on a
ballot, or if a ballot measure fails, that county will follow the default
Missouri statutes.
Petitions
to place such a measure on a ballot can be completed with as few as 100
signatures from landowners in that county. Generally, the rules regarding cost
sharing for building border fences are similar in both statutory options with
the primary differences surrounding when and how a neighboring landowner
resisting paying for part of a new border fence is handled.
The
implications of damages resulting from livestock trespass on neighboring land
are also similar in some respects under
both the default and local option statutes. Upon the first offense, the
livestock owner shall pay for any actual damages created by the trespassing
animal. After any subsequent trespass the animal may be taken up and cared for
by the land owner and reasonable costs for doing so must be paid by the
neighboring livestock owner.
The
primary difference between the two statutory systems is that in the default
statutes these consequences for livestock trespass apply only when the
livestock break over or through the border fence arriving on and damaging the
neighboring landowners property, whereas in the local option, the consequences
apply regardless of the path taken by the animal which arrives on the neighbors
land. Contact your county clerk to find out if your county has adopted the
local option.
(By Vern Pierce, PhD, JD, Associate Extension
Professor of Ag Law, Business & Economics)
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